LOURDES

Author: Émile Zola

Year: 1962 (1894)

Publisher: Panstwowy Instytut Wydawniczy

Language: Polish (Translator Eligia Bakowska)

“In faith, there is enough light for those who believe, and enough shadows to blind those who don’t”, French mathematician Blaise Pascal resigned. How many of the army of priests, pastors, and preachers that populate our churches, shrines, and temples really believe in the God that they purportedly serve? Their mission is to strengthen the commitment of others to God, but what about their own convictions? And to what extent is the love for God their primary concern?

French realist Émile Zola, toward the end of his life, launched a fierce attack on the Roman Catholic Church across three books, collectively known as the Three Cities Trilogy, each titled after the city in which the story takes place. In the opening volume, “Lourdes” which first saw the light of day in 1894, Zola introduces us to Father Pierre Froment, a reluctant priest struggling with his faith, and his childhood friend and one true love, Marie de Guersaint, who suffers from paralysis. We follow them as two of a multitude of travellers over a five day pilgrimage to the sacred water well in Lourdes, by the vicinity of which the Virgin Mary supposedly appeared before Bernadette Soubirous, and where Marie now hopes for a miracle that will return to her her ability to walk and to Pierre his ability to believe.

On their pilgrimage, Pierre and Marie encounter a diverse universe of people, all more or less loosely connected with the holy site of Lourdes. There is the nobleman who invests all his social prestige into guarding the well, the physician who proudly protests to make independent and objective assessments and documentations of each miracle while failing to notice or pretending not to notice his nonsensical use of evidence, the mother who carries around the remains of her dead infant in her arms refusing to accept that the Holy Mother of God would not hear her prayers, just to mention a few.

Most fascinating of all these characters is perhaps Dr Chaussaigne who is the complete anti-figure of Pierre. While Pierre is a priest who has lost his faith in God in favour of science, Dr Chaussaigne is a physician who, following the death of his wife and children in an epidemic, has lost faith in medicine and attached his hope to seeing his beloved ones again in the afterlife.

Zola based this novel on his own observations during his two visits to Lourdes in 1891 and 1892. His is a crowded, corrupt, putrid, and filthy Lourdes drawing its energy from the naïve beliefs of the infantile and simple minds which have access to no other hope for help or comfort than the possible intervention of an imagined being which embodies all the powers they themselves lack. It is a realist’s study of despair, ignorance, and misery.

It is no secret that Émile Zola was a staunch atheist, and his attempt to expose, as it were, the Catholic Church for the swindle that he perceived it to be is a thing of beauty, elegance, and pathos crafted by the daedal pen of a genius. But it is also a work of anger, animosity, and blind resistance of a warrior. The holy site in Zola’s eyes is not a place of worship but profit maximising enterprise. Traders, handymen, and innkeepers all constitute the industry that the legend has brought to the poor village. But the main beneficiary of the economic activity around the well, however, seems to be the Church itself, through the local monastery dedicated to angrily watching over the cash flow generated by the holy site, much like a modern corporation would furiously protect their trademark brands. “No one can serve two masters” - Matt 6:24. There is no doubt in Zola’s mind that the clergymen in Lourdes have made their choice whom to serve, and it is it not Christ.

Spoiler alert!

So what about the miracles? What about poor devout Marie de Guersaint and miserably sceptical Father Pierre Froment?

St Augustine allegedly said that “faith is to believe what you do not see. The reward of faith is to see what you believe”. There have been many modern examples where faith has expelled seemingly incurable diseases. Psychosomatic physical ailments, handicaps, and diseases are well documented in medical journals (there is even a peer-reviewed journal, “Psychosomatic Medicine”, dedicated to this branch of medicine). There have also been examples of miracles which modern science has until now not been able to explain (Grenholm, “Documenterade mirakler”).

Indeed, Marie de Guersaint is healed. She stands up to walk and dance again. Her legs are strong and her body nimble. As a demonstration of strength, she pushes her wheelchair all the way to the Virgin Mary’s grotto to make a sacrifice of gratitude. Father Pierre’s ailment is of a different kind. His condition does not improve. If anything, he sinks deeper into doubt.

Whether there is a God or not, Zola thus concedes that faith, by any definition, can move mountains. "Go, said Jesus. Your faith has made you whole." - Mark 10:52